Optical disk recording and reproducing apparatus for compressed signals

Abstract

An optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus capable of performing the operation of recording, reproducing, or recording and reproducing a plurality channel of signals efficiently and in a short time, by controlling memories. The apparatus has a compressor for compressing an input signal supplied via an A/D converter, a first memory for storing the compressed signal, a disc recording unit having a modulator for modulating the compressed signal and a head block for recording the modulated signal on an optical disc, a disc reproducing unit having a demodulator for demodulating the compressed signal read from the optical disc by the head block, a second memory for storing the demodulated signal, an expander for expanding the demodulated signal read from the second memory, and a D/A converter for converting the read signal.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An optical disc recording and reproducing apparatus comprising: compression means for compressing an input signal for each of a predetermined block length to generate a first compressed signal which is a series of compressed input signal blocks;   an input memory for temporarily storing the compressed input signal blocks;   a head unit for recording said compressed input signal blocks onto an optical disc and reproducing recorded compressed signal blocks from the optical disc;   control means for intermittently reading out the compressed input signal blocks from said input memory and controlling said head unit to record the intermittently read-out compressed input signal blocks onto the optical disc and for controlling said heat unit to pick-up recorded compressed signal blocks for a different program from said input signal from the optical disc;   an output memory for temporarily storing the picked-up compressed signal blocks; and   expansion means for expanding the compressed signal blocks which are continuously read-out from said output memory, to generate a reproduced signal,   wherein said control means controls said head unit to pick-up each recorded compressed signal block during a non-recording interval between intermittent recordings.   
     
     
       2. An optical disc recording apparatus comprising: first compression means for compressing a first input signal for each of a predetermined block length to generate a first compressed signal which is a series of compressed input signal blocks which intermittently occur;   second compression means for compressing a second input signal for each of a predetermined block length to generate a second compressed signal which is a series of compressed input signal blocks which intermittently occur;   an input memory for temporarily storing the compressed input signal blocks of the first and second compressed signals;   a head unit for recording the compressed input signal blocks of the first and second compressed signals onto an optical disc; and   control means for controlling said head unit to record the compressed input signal blocks read out from the memory onto the optical disc,   wherein said control means controls said first and second compression means so that the series of compressed input blocks of the second compressed signal occurs not to timely overlap the series of compressed input blocks of the first compressed signal by shifting the timing of blocking for the second input signal from that of blocking for the first input signal by an interval larger than or equal to one compressed signal length (u) to perform the compression operation on the second input signal after the completion of the compression operation on the first input signal and to successively store the compressed input signal blocks of the first and second compressed signals into said input memory;   wherein said control means controls said head unit to record each compressed input signal block of the second compressed input signal during a non-recording interval between recordings for the compressed input signal blocks of the first compressed signal.